"I thought you'd go crazy like you did five years ago." His lip curled. "Looks like that savage place in the Northwest really can beat the temper out of a person. Living among those uneducated barbarians, I suppose you had no choice but to accept your fate."
I didn't respond. I just silently picked up the pen.
At that moment, Georgia appeared, holding a cup of hot tea with delicate grace.
"Aria, don't blame Ryan for speaking bluntly. Everyone is doing this for your own good." She set the cup down with practiced elegance. "Even though your husband was a crude barbarian, he had money and power. Letting you marry him was a way for you to contribute to the family!"
*Heh.*
*Contribute?*
Five years ago, the Henson Group's capital chain snapped, creating a massive three-billion-dollar deficit. The cause? Georgia Pruitt. As a mere intern, she had "accidentally" leaked the project's floor price to a competitor at a business cocktail party.
If the hole wasn't plugged, Matthew and Georgia would have rotted in prison.
It just so happened that Sebastian James, a coal tycoon from the Northwest, offered a three-billion-dollar cash injection as a bride price for a Henson heiress.